Breadmaking, take 1

After getting used to things fresh from the oven, like the pizza dough earlier this week or the drop biscuits that have gone with various things, we’ve decided to extend this to bread for sandwiches.

I found this recipe and followed some advice from previous bakers to adapt it for sandwich rolls. The original recipe even states that it’s versatile, and can be made to work with dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, or whatever.

I reduced the sugar, since these are intended for sandwiches, and replaced 1 3/4 cups of A.P. flour with strong brown bread flour.

Not having a breadmaker, I stuck mostly to the steps described by summer_lover in the reviews (2nd from top as of this posting).

I also shaped them into 8 round balls instead of the crescents described in the original recipe, as other bakers had done this without damaging the finished product.

As it turns out, one additional step is needed that isn’t mentioned by anyone – re-shape the dough after the $%^&* cat walks across the pan. Luckily, I’d already covered it, so I didn’t have to waste any of the dough.

The bread is on its second rise right now, the cat has been banished outside until they’re finished, and with luck, Fraser will be taking a sandwich on homemade bread for lunch tomorrow.

I hope they’re good, since this was an easy recipe, and could potentially save us a little money, since the recipe probably cost a third, if not less, than the cost of a loaf of the bread we usually get.

– Heather

Homemade Pizza x2

We made pizza last night, and it was so good, we made it again tonight. Okay, in reality, today was supposed to be grocery shopping day, but we didn’t feel like going out. Luckily, Annika’s pizza sauce recipe made enough for 2 pies and we’d frozen half of it, and the crust could not be easier. When making the sauce, we just used a potato masher to crush the tomatoes, since we totally do not have a food processor. Note for fellow Americans, since the recipe only has metric measurements, that’s 3 cups of flour for the crust.

Yesterday, we added some oregano, thyme, and basil to the crust and substituted 1 cup of the all purpose flour for wholemeal flour. We topped it with mozzarella, sliced tomatoes, and onions. As you can see in the comments of the crust recipe, it’s fine if you go ahead and use it without letting it rise, but better if you do. We let it rise while the sauce cooked (about 45 minutes), punched it down, then let it rise again and kneaded it while the oven preheated.

Today, we were nearly out of all purpose flour, so we substituted 2 cups of wholemeal flour. We left out the herbs, but added some chili powder to the sauce, mixed in some caramelized onions left over from yesterday, and topped with cheddar cheese. We didn’t bother with letting the dough rise this time, and the recipe was right – it was still really good.

Both times, the pizza baked perfectly in 20 minutes at 375F/190C. We used a shallow 9 x 13 inch pan (because that’s what we have), and got a more Chicago-style pizza with a nice, thick crust. Someday, we’ll try it on a baking stone.

We’ve had the thought that this dough would also be good for making sandwich rolls, so we may try that after more grocery shopping.